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Friday, January 17, 2014

Reformatory Ancestors

William Caithness Bell and
his brother Alfred Douglas Bell, grandsons of Captain William and Mary Ann Bell
nee Caithness, are missing from their family’s
entry in the 1891 UK Census. Parents James Colquhoun Bell and Sarah nee Clark
are at home in Lyndhurst Street,
South Shields, with their other children ranging
in age from 11 years down to the infant Elizabeth.
Where were William and Alfred, then aged 15 and 14 respectively, on Census
night, 5/6 April 1891 - perhaps away working, possibly apprenticed to a trade?

These
would be reasonable assumptions but the truth is that, unexpectedly, the two
boys are listed elsewhere. On that date they were guests of the North Eastern Reformatory, Netherton, near
Morpeth, Northumberland.

William Caithness Bell was born when his parents
were living in MileEndOldTown, London.

A photograph of him in a dress (as small boys were before being ‘breeched’) and
wearing only one shoe, shows William as bright-eyed and chubby-cheeked.
Unusually, there’s a date written on the back of the photograph, 9 November
1876, so William was a year old. Tartan or similar checked fabric was a popular
choice for children and there are yards of it in William’s outfit, complete
with a large bow, as if he’d been gift-wrapped.

By 1881 William (5) had two younger brothers, Alfred
Douglas (4) and James Colquhoun Bell jnr (1). Ten years later the family were
in South Shields, probably having moved there
due to work opportunities for James snr: he was a ‘Marine Enameller’.
Additional children had arrived in the interim and seven are listed in 1891:
James jnr (11), Hester, Henry, Ellen, Victor (his full name was Sturgeous
Victor), and Frederick.

Local newspapers provide nuggets of information
about the absent sons. On 31 December 1890, a brief report appeared in the
Shields Daily Gazette:

Today's Police News: Pigeons.—William
Caithness Bell (I4) and James (16) [no surname given] were
charged with stealing two pigeons, the value 3s, the property of Charles Temple,
joiner, 109 Edith Street.
James Townsley, pigeon dealer, Mill Dam, said the elder lad brought the birds
to his shop and he bought them from him. Fined 5s and costs each.

This was a relatively minor brush with the law, but
there had been at least one previous misdemeanour in October 1890 and William
was soon to be in the news again. In February 1891 he and Alfred were charged
with three separate incidents of breaking and entering. The Bell brothers were duly sentenced and served
two weeks in prison after which they were sent to the North-Eastern Reformatory for four
years.

South Shields Gazette and Shipping TelegraphTuesday 24 February 1891

It seems a harsh punishment, though in an earlier
era they might have been transported or worse. As the 19th c neared
its close, there was a slightly more enlightened view. Juvenile offenders,
especially those who had appeared before the court more than once, could be
placed in Reformatories and hopefully redirected onto the straight and narrow
path. These institutions weren't holiday homes, as entries in the Punishment Book for 1891 reveal, and the cane was frequently used:

The North-EasternReformatorySchool
for Boys was founded in the mid-1850s, moving to a site at Netherton near Morpeth in 1859. By
William’s and Alfred’s time there would have been 210 boys at the Reformatory.
From 1933 the establishment became the Netherton Training Approved School.

Alfred Douglas Bell’s further adventures remain
unknown but William Caithness Bell emerged apparently unscathed after his four
year stint, marrying a Durham girl, Elizabeth Mankin, in May 1900 and settling
down to raise a family. William was ‘in work’ at the shipyard. By 1911 they had
a daughter Victoria Josephine and a son named James Colquhoun Bell (the third
in that line), evidence that William valued family tradition and that his life
was back on track.